Rail car tracking system

ABSTRACT

A method and system for tracking a rail car having an on-board communication system including a location determining system and a transceiver for receiving and transmitting rail car data. The communication system including a processor responsive to an executable program for enabling operation of the transceiver to transmit rail car data during a reporting event and having a memory for storing data and instructions. The processor memory includes a remotely addressable software database accessible by the executable program for establishing a reporting event in response to at least one of a selected time, a change in geographical location, an extended time in a geographical location, an approach to a specified geographical location, a coupling/decoupling of the rail car with a particular locomotive and a command to report. The rail car includes an AEI reader attached to the rail car for reading AEI tags on other rail vehicles passing by the reader, the reader being in communication with the rail car message system for transmitting data indicating at least a location of the other rail vehicles.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No.60/547,513 filed Feb. 24, 2004.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates generally to the field of rail transportation,and more particularly to tracking locations of rail cars within a railtransportation system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Railway shippers need to be able to track the location of rail carswithin a rail transportation system. Supply chain managementimprovements and heightened security concerns have increased the need totrack and pinpoint rail car locations at all times, whether the rail caris stationary in a rail yard or siding, or being moved through the railsystem by a locomotive. Currently, rail cars may be equipped with radiofrequency identification (RFID) tags such as Automatic EquipmentIdentification (AEI) tags that may be read by a wayside tag readerpositioned at known locations within the rail system and configured torecognize and report when an AEI tagged railcar passes. Such reports areknown as Car Location Messages (CLM's). Accordingly, a location and atime of passage of the rail car may be reported from the wayside tagreader to a centralized database that may be accessed by shippers or therailroad companies to track the last reported locations of their taggedrail cars. However, such an AEI system can only provide locationinformation of the rail car at the time when the car passes the reader.Thus, the exact location of a railcar at times after it has passed anAEI tag reader, such as in an industrial plant, is not known through theuse of the AEI tag system. Moreover, with only a relatively limitednumber of AEI tag readers available, a significant length of track (andthus a large number of possible railcar locations) may exist betweenadjacent AEI tag readers. Rail cars have also been equipped withlocating equipment, such as a global positioning satellite (GPS)receiver, coupled to an on-board transmitter to transmit rail carlocation information to a central site for rail car tracking purposes.However, as described below, these systems typically transmit a largebody of information in long messages so as to fully identify thelocation of the railcars and do so on regularly scheduled timedintervals, so that battery life has proven to be unacceptably short. Onsome trains known as dedicated “unit” trains, train-based local areanetworks (LAN's) have also been deployed to link cars in the train tothe train locomotives.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be more apparent from the following description inview of the sole FIGURE that shows a functional block diagram of anexemplary system for tracking rail cars in a rail transportation system.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention innovatively integrates information accumulatedfrom multiple railway IT systems to provide a rail car tracking systemoperating on extended life intervals. The present invention enables arail car tracking system that provides location-reporting accuracy thatis improved over existing AEI tag systems that are limited by thespacing between wayside readers. The present invention also enables arail car tracking system that provides high-value information transferwith low on-car power requirements by utilizing event-driven reportingand reduced message lengths. In one embodiment, the capabilities of AEItag systems, locomotive communication systems and railcar GPS systemsare integrated with railroad train, track and schedule databases toprovide a cost effective and power effective solution to the problem ofrail car tracking.

In the past, rail cars were not typically equipped with an independentelectrical power generating means to power onboard electrical equipment.While techniques such as air powered, or axle rotation-poweredgenerators have been proposed, such systems only work when the rail caris coupled to a compressed air source, such as a locomotive, or when therail car is moving. Consequently, batteries are typically used as theprimary source of power for rail car onboard electrical equipment.However, batteries, if not recharged, cannot power equipmentindefinitely. Furthermore, the higher the power usage of the battery,the shorter the life of the battery. While batteries may be convenientfor limited rail car equipment powering needs, battery maintenance andreplacement increases operating costs for the railway.

In rail car tracking applications using a GPS receiver and transmitter,transmission of information from the rail car, and, in particular,transmission of messages containing relatively large amounts ofinformation, may quickly deplete a battery, especially if such messagesare transmitted on a relatively frequent periodic basis. Accordingly, itis desired to reduce the power requirement needed by onboard rail carelectrical equipment, such as rail car locating equipment, while stillproviding improved rail car tracing and reporting capability. Theinventors have recognized that by innovatively combining different railcar tracking techniques and assimilating railway information acquiredfrom a variety of pre-existing sources, improved rail car tracking maybe achieved by the inventors unique presentation of more comprehensivetracking and scheduling information in a single user-friendly form,together with reduced power consumption by the rail car onboard trackingand reporting equipment. Advantageously, rail car battery life may beextended, and battery maintenance and replacement intervals may bereduced compared to conventional techniques of providing rail carlocation information.

The FIGURE is a functional block diagram of an exemplary system 10 fortracking rail cars in a rail transportation system. The system 10generally includes rail car location/transceiver equipment 12 forming awireless message system mounted on a rail car 22. The rail carlocation/transceiver equipment 12 may include a location determinationdevice, such as a GPS receiver 24, a transceiver 26, a processor 28, anda memory 30 for storing processor instructions. The rail car 22 may alsobe equipped with a sensor suite 32 for sensing operating conditions ofthe rail car 22, and a power source, such as a battery 34, for poweringthe sensor suite 32 and the rail car location/transceiver equipment 12.The sensor suite 32 may include sensors such as an accelerometer fordetecting movement of the rail car 22, a temperature sensor, a pressuresensor, a door position sensor, a cargo identification sensor, and acargo seal condition sensor. The rail car 22 may also be equipped withan AEI tag 33 to uniquely identify the car 22 to a wayside AEI tagreader 36 that the car 22 passes. The AEI tag is preferably an activetag including a processor that allows the tag to read as well as beingread and to communicate the results of the reading of external tags suchas those on wayside markers or on other rail vehicles (rail cars andlocomotives, for example) to the equipment 12 so that the location ofthe external tags can be communicated to a remote rail system monitoringand tracking operation. This enables comparison of different AEI datafor determining location of rail assets. The railcar may also senseattributes of the cargo contained within the railcar. For example, anRFID reader (not shown) may be in communication with the processor 28for sensing RFID tagged cargo in the railcar 22. Such information may beprovided to customers of the railroad via the shipper interface 56.

In an aspect of the invention, the rail car location/transceiverequipment 12 may be in communication with a rail car tracking interface16 controlled by a central processor 19 having access to a centralizedtrain and car tracking database 18. The rail car tracking interface 16is off-board of the railcar and remote from the rail car locationtransceiver equipment 12 as indicated by dotted line 20. The rail cartracking interface 16 may include a transceiver for communication to andfrom one or more rail cars, a processor, a memory, and a communicationinterface, such as a LAN or Internet interface, for communication withthe central processor 19. The rail car location/transceiver equipment 12may communicate with the rail car tracking interface 16 over a suitablewireless rail car radio link 14, such as a satellite or cellularnetwork. The rail car transceiver 26 may be configured for bidirectionaloperation so that the rail car 22 may transmit rail car data and receiveinstructions, for example, from the rail car tracking interface 16.Information, such as railcar location data, speed data, heading data,sensor data, and battery power data, may be transmitted from the railcar 22 in accordance with programmed instructions, upon request from therail car tracking interface 16, and/or upon occurrence of an exceptionalevent. In addition, dwell alert information, indicating, for example,that the rail car has remained motionless for a certain period of time,may also be transmitted from the rail car 22 on a periodic basis or uponrequest. Dwell alert data may be obtained by the processor 28 monitoringtiming and GPS position from GPS 24. In yet another aspect,“geo-fencing” information, such as a time when the rail car 22 hastraversed a predetermined geographic boundary, may be transmitted by therail car 22 when the rail car 22 crosses the this virtual boundary.Accordingly, the configurable geo-fences may be used to simulate AEIreaders by providing CLM messages when the rail car passes a certainlocation.

In an embodiment of invention, the rail car location/transceiverequipment 12 may be configured to communicate with a locomotive 38 overa locomotive communication link 40 such as a wireless local area network(LAN), for example, when the rail car 22 is connected in a train poweredby the locomotive 38. The locomotive 38 may include locomotivecommunication equipment 42 for communicating with the rail car 22 overthe LAN, and for communicating with a locomotive interface 48 over awireless locomotive radio link 14. The locomotive communicationequipment 42 may sense and report the status of onboard locomotivesystems 44. The locomotive communication equipment 42 may be configuredto transmit locomotive location from various sources such as an AEIreader and GPS receiver 45, speed, heading, dwell alert information,geo-fencing information, and train handling information to thelocomotive interface 48. In an aspect of the invention, locomotiveoperation indicative of a decoupling maneuver may be transmitted to thelocomotive interface 48 to alert a possible decoupling of rail cars 22from a train pulled by the locomotive 38. The locomotive interface 48may include a transceiver for communication with one or morelocomotives, a processor, a memory, and a communication interface, suchas a LAN or Internet interface, for communication with the centralprocessor 19.

The system 10 may further include a system interface 50 for receivingother inputs that may be useful for tracking rail cars in the system 10.The system interface 50 may include input communication interfacesappropriate for receiving these other inputs, such as a wirelesscommunications interface, a wide area network (WAN) interface, or anInternet interface; a processor; a memory; and an output communicationinterface; such as a LAN or Internet interface, for communication withthe central processor 19. In an aspect of the invention, the system 10may be configured to receive data from one or more AEI readers 36.Through communication with a track database 52 that contains, forexample, locations of AEI readers 36 throughout a railway system, thesystem interface 50, upon receiving an indication of a sensed rail carfrom one of the AEI readers, such as over an AEI wireless link 54, maybe configured to provide a location of a rail car 22 at certain point intime when the rail car 22 passes the reader 36. The present system 10may utilize AEI reader data to recognize an assemblage of rail cars as atrain and to associate that train with one or more locomotives. In thismanner, locomotive position data received from the locomotive interface48 may be applied to all of the rail cars in the train to update railcar position information without the need for any car-specific datatransmission.

The system interface 50 may also include inputs for railroad (RR) workorder information, RR estimated time of arrival (ETA) information,weather information, train schedule information, track circuitinformation and computer aided dispatch (CAD) information. Suchinformation acquired from various sources may be assimilated and used toprovide more comprehensive data associated with rail car 22 locations ina single user-friendly presentation and in a more power efficientmanner. In an aspect of the invention, the rail car tracking interface16, the locomotive interface 48, the system interface 50 and the trackdatabase 52 may be in communication with each other and the centralprocessor 19 and train and car tracking database 18, such as over asuitable network, such as a LAN or Internet connection, to allowintegration of information from among these sources. The train and cartracking database 18, or portion of the database 18, may also beprovided, for example, via the central processor 19, to a shipperinterface 56 or railroad (RR) company interface 60 that may beaccessible by shippers, such as over a secure communication link, toallow shippers to locate their rail cars within the railway system.

The information gathered from the input sources via the interfaces 16,48, 50 may be used to provide real-time rail car location, car speed,car heading, notifications when a car arrives at a predeterminedlocation, notification when cargo conditions changes, such as a sealopening or closing, temperature or pressure readings exceedingpredetermined values, and ETA at a destination. In an embodiment,operating instructions based on input parameters such as rail cardestination, train schedules, and cargo carried by the rail car 22 andgenerated by the train and car tracking database 18 may be provided to arail car 22 via, for example, wireless transmission of instructions fromthe rail car tracking interface 16. The rail car receives the operatinginformation and may store the information in memory 30 as processorinstructions to control operation of the rail car location/transceiverequipment 12 to conserve battery power. Such information may be providedto the rail car 22 at any time, or in response to a change in conditionof the rail car, such as when the rail car is connected to ordisconnected from a train, or in response to changing parameters withinthe railway system, such as a change in weather or track conditions. Onemay appreciate that if rail car position information is being updated onthe basis of a car-assemblage train definition and train locomotiveposition data, it is important for system 10 to recognize when a railcar is being associated with or disassociated from a particular train.

In order to reduce power usage on-board the rail car, the system 10 maybe configured to transmit as little data as possible from the rail car,while at the same time ensuring that high value information istransmitted in a timely manner. Data that can be obtained directly orindirectly from other sources need not be generated at the railcar (andthus need not be transmitted from the rail car), such as the exampledescribed above of car location being derived from train location thatis reported as locomotive location. The central processor 19, based oninput information provided by the interfaces 16, 48, 50, and informationstored in the train and car tracking database 18, may generateinstructions for transmission to a rail car 22 for reducing atransmission frequency and/or amount of information transmitted by therail car 22 to conserve battery power. Data transmitting frequency maybe a function of variables other than time, such as distance from adestination, initiation of movement, location, etc. Typically, only datathat is new or revised (or otherwise not available from another source)would be transmitted. An innovative method of achieving reduced powerconsumption by a rail car may include limiting transmission ofinformation to occurrences of an exception to an expected operationprofile, instead of transmitting, at a fixed periodic rate, informationthat may not be changing or is not varying within a predetermined rangeof desired values. The rail car location/transceiver equipment 12 andsensor suite 32 may be configured to remain in a minimum power stateuntil an exception occurs, such as when a condition detected by a sensorchanges or exceeds a predetermined value. The processor 28 may thentransmit an exception signal to the rail car tracking interface 16. Suchan exception signal may be formatted as a message having a limitedlength to contain only the minimum amount of information needed toreport the exception condition. In an aspect of the invention, the railcar tracking interface 16 may be configured to send a response signal tothe rail car 22 from which an exception signal was received. Theresponse signal may contain new instructions for the rail carlocation/transceiver equipment 12 based on the nature of the exception,or the response may contain an acknowledgement indication verifying thatthe exception signal was received. The rail car location/transceiverequipment 12 may be configured to transmit exception signals at aperiodic rate when an exception occurs until a response is received fromthe rail car tracking interface 16 to verify that the exception signalis received.

The processor 28 may be programmed with instructions allowing it torecognize conditions indicative of not being attached to a locomotive.When a rail car is on a siding and is not moving, processor 28 may beprogrammed to report that it is parked and then to provide no furtherreport until it is moved, or until it is moved past a known locationsuch as an AEI location. During such dormant periods, programmedmessages may be prepared via the system interface 50 and may be storedin a virtual in-box for the rail car. The rail car equipment may beprogrammed to awaken periodically to check its in-box for messages, suchas revised reporting schedule instructions.

For example, if a temperature exceeds a predetermined value, anexception signal reporting a sensed temperature extreme may betransmitted to the rail car tracking interface 16 and reported to thetrain and car tracking database 18. If the rail car 22 has onboardrefrigeration capability, the train and car tracking data base 18 mayrecognize this and provide an instruction to be sent to the rail car 22via the rail car tracking interface 16 to remedy the exceptioncondition, such as by controlling the onboard refrigeration unit toprovide additional cooling. Once an exception has occurred, exceptionreporting parameters may be changed, for example, by providing newparameters via the rail car tracking interface 16, to more closelymonitor the exception condition. In another example, if a door sensordetects that a door on the rail car 22 has been opened, an exceptionsignal may be transmitted reporting an open door condition. Locationinformation may be provided in the exception signal to allow maintenancepersonnel to locate the rail car 22 and correct the sensed condition,such as by closing the open door. In yet another example, if anaccelerometer sensor on the rail car senses a pattern of movementindicative of decoupling rail cars, an exception signal identifying thecondition, including location information, may be transmitted.

In yet another aspect, an accelerometer exception signal may begenerated if a change from a moving condition to a stopped condition, orvice versa, is sensed. For example, if a rail car 22 has beendisconnected from a train and left stationary in a siding or train yard,and the accelerometer detects movement of the rail car 22, an exceptionsignal, which may include location information, may be generated toindicate the rail car 22 has moved. Similarly, if a rail car 22 has beenmoving, such as in a train, and a stopped condition is detected, anexception signal, which may include location information, may betransmitted to indicate an unexpected stop. In another embodiment, amercury switch may be used to sense acceleration or deceleration. Otherexception signals may be generated to report the health of the trackingequipment onboard the railcar, such as when a low power batterycondition exists, if a GPS link fails, or if any of the rail car onboardequipment fails or is not operating within desired specifications. Instill another aspect, if a rail car 22 has remained stationary for acertain amount of time, the rail car location/transceiver equipment 12may be scheduled to “wake up” periodically to identify its locationand/or accept new information from the rail car tracking interface 16.

In still another aspect of the invention, instead of sending locationdata on a fixed periodic basis as such information is conventionallysent, power conservation on the rail car 22 may be achieved by limitingfrequency of rail car transmissions, such as location information,depending on a distance from an intended destination. For example, ashipper may only want to know the location of a rail car 22 as the car22 nears its destination. If a rail car 22 is traveling on a trip of aknown distance, such as a one thousand mile trip, and an average speedof the rail car is known, such as may be inferred from locomotiveinformation or estimated as an average speed for the trip based onhistorical data and current railway conditions, the rail car 22 may beinstructed to transmit its location when it is projected to be atpredetermined time, such as 10 hours, away from its destination, seen asa geo-fence, and may increase its frequency of transmitting locationinformation after reaching this point. The central processor 19 mayperform speed, time and distance calculations to project when a rail carneeds to report its location. The lack of such an expected may stimulatean inquiry being sent to the rail car's “in box” to prompt the rail carto report its present location/condition.

In another aspect, power conservation on the rail car 22 may be achievedby limiting frequency of rail car transmissions using the concept ofgeo-fences, or electronically bounded areas of railway operation. Forexample, an electronic boundary may be defined around the outskirts of acity to indicate to a train crossing the boundary that the train hasleft or entered the outskirts, depending on its direction of travel. Thedirection of travel may be determined from train schedule data orlocomotive data available in the system 10. Direction of travel may alsobe provided by heading information developed from GPS data. This conceptmay be implemented by defining a geographic location of the boundary sothat when a train having self-locating equipment traverses the boundary,the train may be configured to recognize that it has crossed theboundary by correlating its current location with the defined geographiclocation of the boundary. For example, a rail car 22 may be providedwith appropriate geo-fence locations by the rail car tracking interface16 at the beginning of a trip, such as when the rail car 22 is coupledto train, based on the destination of the rail car 22. Then, instead oftransmitting location information on a periodic basis, the rail car 22may be instructed to limit sending of location information to anoccurrence of the rail car traversing a geo-fence boundary. For example,the rail car may compare its current location, such as derived fromreceived GPS position data, to geo-fence boundary information stored inmemory 30 to determine if the rail car has crossed a geo-fence boundary,and, if a boundary crossing has occurred, the rail car 22 may transmitan indication that it has crossed the boundary.

Another innovative method of reducing power consumption may includedecreasing a frequency of transmission of data when location informationmay be inferred using other means, such as by using locomotive or AEIposition information to infer a rail car location when the rail car 22is in a train attached to the locomotive 38. Typically locomotiveinformation may be provided on a relatively frequent basis because powerconsumption by the locomotive communication equipment 42 is not aconcern. Consequently, when the rail car 22 is attached to a trainpulled by a locomotive 38 that is in communication with the locomotiveinterface 48, rail car location information may be inferred from alocomotive 38 location instead of requiring the rail car toindependently report its location. Furthermore, rail car statusinformation may be inferred from locomotive action, such as whenlocomotive information provided to the locomotive interface 48 indicatesthat the locomotive is performing make/brake maneuvers, indicative ofdecoupling rail cars. If such locomotive maneuvers are detected, therails car tracking interface 16 may instruct the rail car 22 to identifyits location to determine if the car 22 has been decoupled or is stilltraveling with the train.

In yet another aspect, the rail car 22 may be monitored to determineremaining battery life based on past usage by the rail carlocation/transceiver equipment 12. For example, remaining battery lifemay be modeled based on the number and/or length of messages transmittedby the rail car location/transceiver equipment 12. If a cumulativenumber and/or cumulative length of messages transmitted by the rail car22 exceeds a predetermined total number and total length indicating thebattery power may soon be exhausted, the rail car 22 may be instructedto transmit its location and then refrain from transmitting until thebattery 34 is replaced or recharged. Service personnel may also bealerted at the same time of the need to replace or recharge the batteryonboard the railcar. The rail car location/transceiver equipment 12 maybe configured to perform this battery monitoring function, or thefunction may be performed remotely, such as by the rail car trackinginterface 16, based on the number and length of transmissions receivedfor the rail car 22.

In yet another embodiment, the locomotive may be equipped with an AEIreader and may function as a roaming locator of rail cars. Thelocomotive may be configured to identify cars within its train. Thelocomotive may also be configured to locate other cars that it passes,such as cars stationary on a siding, by reading the AEI tags of thosecars and by providing the corresponding tag and location information tothe locomotive interface 28 for processing by the central processor 19.

While the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been shownand described herein, it will be obvious that such embodiments areprovided by way of example only. Numerous variations, changes andsubstitutions will occur to those of skill in the art without departingfrom the invention herein.

1. A rail car tracking system comprising: rail car location equipmentmounted to a rail car, the equipment including a transmitter fortransmitting rail car location data to a remote receiver and furtherincluding an electronically readable tag attached to the rail car foridentifying the rail car to a wayside tag reader; and locomotivecommunication equipment mounted in a locomotive and adapted forcommunication with the rail car location equipment when the rail car andlocomotive are coupled into a common train, the locomotive communicationequipment being operative to identify the coupled rail car and includinga transmitter for transmitting data to the remote receiver, the dataincluding rail car data so that the required data transmission from therail car transmission equipment is reduced.
 2. The rail car trackingsystem of claim 1 and including a LAN for data transmission between therail car and the locomotive.
 3. The rail car tracking system of claim 2and including a plurality of status sensors coupled to the rail car,each of the sensors providing data to the car location equipmenttransmitter for transmission via the LAN to the locomotive transmitter.4. The rail car system of claim 3 and including locomotive systemsmonitoring equipment coupled in communication with the locomotivecommunication equipment for transmitting locomotive data to the remotereceiver.
 5. The rail car system of claim 4 wherein the remote receiverincludes a rail car tracking interface for receiving data transmissionfrom the rail car communication equipment, a locomotive trackinginterface for receiving data transmitted from the locomotivecommunication equipment, a system interface for identifying railcarspassing the reader and a central processing unit for extracting datafrom all the interfaces for identifying location of a rail car.
 6. Anintegrated rail car tracking system comprising; a plurality of fixedwayside automatic equipment identification (AEI) readers spaced atpredetermined locations along a railway for reading identification datafrom a AEI tags on rail cars passing along the railway; a locomotivetracking system including an on-board GPS system for providing dataindicative of the location of the locomotive and a transmitter fortransmitting the location data to a remote receiver; a rail car wirelessmessage system attached to a rail car for sending periodic messagesindicative of the location of the rail car, the message system includinga GPS system for generating data indicative of rail car location; and alocal area network (LAN) established between the rail car and anassociated locomotive whereby the rail car location data is transmittedto the locomotive tracking system for transmission to the remotereceiver.
 7. The integrated rail car tracking system of claim 6 andincluding a remote data processor for processing data received by theremote receiver and for extracting from the data information identifyingthe location, speed and direction of travel of the associated rail car.8. The integrated rail car tracking system of claim 7 and including aplurality of status sensors mounted on the rail car, the sensorsproviding status data to the rail car message system for transmission tothe remote receiver.
 9. The integrated rail car tracking system of claim8 wherein the status sensors include one or more of door opening/closingsensors, pressure sensors, temperature sensors and cargo identificationsensors.
 10. The integrated rail car tracking system of claim 8 andincluding programming operable in an on-board processor 28 for readingtime and location from GPS for indicating dwell time without substantialmovement.
 11. The integrated rail car tracking system of claim 7 andincluding data storage at the remote processor for storing datarepresenting rail car scheduling, the processor comparing rail car datato rail car scheduling for providing data indicative of deviations fromscheduling.
 12. The integrated rail car tracking system of claim 7 andincluding programming means operable in the rail car message system fortransmitting periodic messages to the remote receiver and fortransmitting status change messages to the remote receiver upondetection of a status change.
 13. The integrated rail car trackingsystem of claim 7 and including locomotive status sensors mounted in thelocomotive and coupled to the locomotive communication system forproviding data indicative of locomotive status to the remote receiver.14. The integrated rail car tracking system of claim 12 wherein one ofthe status change messages comprises a message indicating movementacross a predetermined geographical boundary.
 15. The integrated railcar tracking system 7 and including a rail car battery saving functionfor reducing rail car transmissions when the rail car is coupled to thelocomotive.
 16. The integrated rail car tracking system of claim 7 andincluding a rail car battery saving function for reducing rail cartransmissions when the rail car remains stationary.
 17. A method fortracking a rail car having an on-board communication system including alocation determining system and a transceiver for receiving andtransmitting rail car data, the system including a processor responsiveto an executable program for enabling operation of the transceiver totransmit rail car data during a reporting event, the method comprisingproviding a remotely addressable software database accessible by theexecutable program for establishing a reporting event in response to atleast one of a selected time, a change in geographical location, anextended time in a geographical location, an approach to a specifiedgeographical location, a coupling/decoupling of the rail car with aparticular locomotive and a command to report.
 18. The integrated railcar tracking system of claim 7 and including an AEI reader attached tothe rail car for reading AEI tags on other rail vehicles passing by thereader, the reader being in communication with the rail car messagesystem for transmitting data indicating at least a location of the otherrail vehicles.